Vistula Winter Expedition

I had the feeling I did not understand it to the end. I decided to canoe it down in summer 2009 with a group of water sports scouts. This gave me a more considerate image of this river. I have understood that Liv’s intuition led in the right direction. I was wondering what I could do for the Vistula. Also my emotions were lukewarm during the summer expedition.

Nobody was interested in the Vistula, nobody wanted to hear of it. Then I understood that what you need is a simple formula and a simple message: one river, one man, one canoe and winter – the whole expedition based on the river. I was expected even to drink water from it, eat fish from the Vistula and sleep in a tent on the river bank. The Vistula was to be the heroine of this expedition. As I wanted to take advantage from other people’s experience, just like at any previous expedition, I called my friend Børge Ousland who, following Nansen, passed from the North Pole to Franz Joseph Land with a canoe instead of the pulk sled and canoed the last section of this route. Børge recommended me to take a Yukon Expedition canoe made by Prijon and a sail. I also made use of other winter river canoeing experiences. Vistula Winter Expedition, as that was how I named it, was a truly winter canoeing expedition. It had more in common with polar expedition than with canoeing. It was a polar expedition on the Vistula.